1700 calories a day, too much?

Hi.I'm a newbie here. Want to shed 10 lbs. I've done calorie counting years ago to lose the baby weight. The lbs crept back with my lack of motivation over time. Anyway in the past I was never given this many calories in a day - I'm calculated at 1700 at day. Oh, and I'm at low activity -(go to the gym about 3 times a week) I weigh around 134 and liked to get to 125. Doesn't this seem too high to you all as well? I was figuring I'd get 1500 at most.

Tessgirl, there are a ton of other caluclators out there that you can use to calculate your RDI and just plug it in manually. I like the one at freedieting.com. 1700 cals does sound a bit high for you at that weight. I'm at 170 and average 1700-1800 cals a day.

Fawkesmom, 1500 sounds WAY low for you. Be careful about those generic recommendations that are given out. 1500 seems like one of those numbers that sticks in people's heads but I weigh nearly 100 lbs less than you and don't consistently eat that low! My guess is that at that calorie level, you'll lose weight for a while then stall and have to increase your calories to get moving again. Log everything and monitor your results- by looking at my own results, I've seen proof that I am more successful at losing weight in months where I'm eating a little higher and not sticking to rock-bottom calorie levels. Pay attention to your own data if you get stuck and see what's working for you. Also, be wary of going over 2 lbs a week average weight loss- when you're eating so low, you have to be careful that you're not losing muscle in addition to fat. Making sure you're getting enough protein in those cals will also help and if you can, monitor your body fat percentage.

I find that the right number of calories is a matter of trial and error- start with a number generated by one of the calorie estimators and then stick with it a couple weeks to see how it goes. Another trick is to vary your calorie intake from day to day. I avereaged about the SAME number of calories daily in September and October- lost nothing in September and lost aobut 4 pounds in October (before I got sick and lost a couple more because of that). The biggest change: instead of eating in the 1700 cal range everyday, I started doing two 1500 cal days and then eating over 2000 cals on the 3rd day. Changing up your calorie levels from day to today is an approach called calorie confusion and helps to prevent your body from adjusting your metabolism to fit with the lower level of calories as it naturally does over time. There's no one way to do this and freediet.com will give you a zig zag schedule- I picked my particular approach because it was simple and gives me the flexibility to plan my high cal days for when I can best use the increased cals (like going out out to dinner).

Wow. Never even heard of the zig zag method. I think that's what was my issue before. I'm going to give that a shot. And you were both right other websites have my base calorie intake at 1500 to lose slowly and safely. I am now excited about doing it the zig zag way. I did have a question about the zig zag method. Do I need to follow the calorie order for each day in the order they give me or can I mix it up, simply making sure that all the calories allotted are used through out the week. For example.. Monday may be a 1500 calorie day but was scheduled as an 1800 calorie but I have 1800 on Tuesday instead of the 1500 that's given... make sense?

Tessgirl, I'm definitely NOT following zig zag pattern on the website. It's too tough to keep track of for me. I just set my own, making sure that the "high" is a pretty big jump so that it will actually keep my body guessing. I've read that after 3 days, your body starts to adjust your metabolism, so I try to make sure that I'm at least changing my calorie intake on the 4th day, if not sooner. Play around with it and see what works for you

Fawkesmom, I didn't mean to overstep- sounds like you're working with a specialist which is great. I've just heard of any number of general practitioners throwing numbers out there I wouldn't really construe as "expert" advice on the subject- my own doc is not much help in this department. Glad you're working with someone who knows their stuff!

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